Hanoi

Arrived: Wednesday 2nd August 2017 [Day22]

Departed: Friday 4thnd August 2017 [Day24]

It was a long and bumpy journey from Sapa to Hanoi in the dark. I spent it reading, listening to music, messaging friends and just lying there. We got dropped off in Hanoi again at around 9:30pm, and walked to our 2nd home: Central Backpackers – Original. We were both a bit grump and snappy with each other (definitely hangry). I messed up the directions walking back to the hostel, and Alice kept flapping the towel which made the lift doors open again, and again, and again before I snatched the towel off her. We dumped our bags, gave each other a look, and agreed we needed to go get some food before we lost it with each other. We went to a place just down the road and had a much needed burger and chips before going back to room #7 and getting some sleep (as much as we could with the worlds loudest snorer in our room).

We woke up, grabbed some breakfast (back to our standard of eggs and bread), and then chilled in the room until around 10:30am (I felt the need to write down in my journal that I brushed my teeth downstairs in the lobby area… Again, so much pointless Parker!) At half 10, Nathan, the hostel rep who had done the Halong Bay thing with us, came to the hostel to round up the troops for the free walking tour. (This hostel was definitely one of the most helpful and handy hostels we’d stayed at. Free towels, free breakfast (even when leaving super early), a warm welcome every time, free beer hour, great Halong Bay trip, free walking tour, reserving a table for us at the Indian, and helping us book and sort out busses.)

There were quite a lot of us (maybe 20-30) on the walking tour, and Nathan led us a few doors down to a small hidden temple which was roughly 900years old and one of the oldest standing buildings in Hanoi. We couldn’t go in if we were wearing shoes or had our shoulders or knees on show (standard practice). So most of us just stood in the little opening and looked at it from the outside.

Next up was the huge cathedral. “What do you guys think? Do you like it? Think it’s beautiful? Huge? Awesome?” Nathan asked us, we all responded with nods of agreement… “Well, you’re going to feel real bad about that when I tell you it’s history!” St Joseph’s Cathedral was Continue reading →

[PHOTO: everything I travelled with over the 3 weeks; the rucksack I use for work, and a mini rucksack that just about holds my camera and purse]

So, I’ve been struggling to decide how to start these next 3, inevitably looonngg, blog posts about my Chinese New Year travels… I guess it would make sense to start at the beginning right? I mean, “let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..” But these tales aren’t bookended by a musical do… they start and end with a mixture of excitement, worry, and uncertainty. One constant throughout my trip however, was that I was constantly learning. They say travel is the best form of education, life education that is, and I definitely did a lot of learning over the past 3 weeks. From doing research on my destinations, managing my money in both China and the UK, learning how to travel with a variety of different people, learning how to take my trip into my own hands, and so much more… (I also learnt that I’m not as good at the limbo as I used to be, but I’ll come back to that sad fact)

Well, my trip was clearly and easily broken down into 3 solid sections:

Tokyo

Seoul

Thailand

So this is how I’ll be forming my travel blog posts. It’s going to take some time for me to get everything down, I can see it being over a month before I wrap things up and get to type up the words “and then I was back in my teeny but homey apartment in Country Garden.” But I don’t mind too much, it’s always nice to re-live the travel experiences and this will be a good way to prolong the feeling and memory of travel. Plus, it will mean you guys, my few but reliable readers, don’t have just one HUGE post to read, which would inevitably bore you to death.

At this very moment, I’m typing this up (on my phone) on Saturday at 9am… no I’m not at home in bed with a cuppa, I’m sat in one of the school theatres, while someone stands on stage, chattering away in Chinese, and all the international staff sit here with headphones in listening to some poor Chinese lady try and translate as quickly as she can. To my left, is another international teacher looking through photos on her laptop. To my right is a Chinese teacher reading a children’s English book. All around me I can see everyone on their phones, reading books, on their laptops, or just outright sleeping…

Anyway, this is a pointless blog post so I’ll cut it off here before I woffle on even more. Thanks for reading folks, and I look forward to sharing my travel adventures with you “all”.

I was awoken today, on our 6th morning in Thailand, to Shelby asking me to go to the pharmacy for her. Poor girl had been up ill for hours and could no longer take it without some medical help. I shot up, threw on a change of clothes and headed out into the rain. Yes the rain. We’ve been at Patong Beach, Phuket for 3 nights, and we’ve only seen a few patches of blue sky… until today, typical. There have been some epic sea storms sweeping across the party town of Patong the last few days, but it doesn’t make for great beach weather. I’m at serious risk of being to Thailand twice, and never making into the ocean… Today, the day we aimed to leave, but have been forced to stay (through no fault of Shelby), the sun has made a slight appearance through the grey clouds.It’s not all doom and gloom though. Our trip so far has been great. The last few days have been about relaxing, reading, and, yes, partying the night away on the infamous Bangla Road. Prior to that, our time in Chiang Mai was filled with wandering the streets of old town, walking the moat, stumbling upon gold temples, and, the most incredible of all, a day caring for elephants.Continue reading →

a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.

Awe is such a perfect word to write about and think of right now, and that definition explains it all. I used to think I was in awe of travellers, explorers and globetrotters, and I guess I still am. But now I think I’m more in awe of the countries themselves, not the people landing on the airport runway. And when I say countries, I mean everything that they contain; the culture, the locals, the food, the sights, the unique nature and environment of each place. I don’t want to just repeat the definition, but as I said, it sums it up so perfectly. I’m filled with wonder, with a small, but very real, spark of fear, of the many many different countries I’ve not yet been privileged enough to step foot in. The fear and wonder is one of those crazy mixed up emotions that fills me up, right to the brim, but it’s so intertwined with such a strong raging excitement, that it’s hard to contain. I feel so passionately about this and one of my favourite words Continue reading →

So, I’m going to be quite quiet on the Blog front for a few weeks. I’m going to try and do mini updates every now and again, but they’re just going to be from my phone, so nothing fancy.

I’m currently sat under the strongest wind blowing machines I’ve ever experienced in Shanghai PVG airport. It’s almost 6am, and we were picked up at 1am. So it’s already been a long day, and it’s not going to be over for a very long time.

Yesterday was my last day as an Intern/Photographer for DHSZ, and it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that it’s over… It’s sad, it’s exciting, it’s crazy. 11 months I’ve spent working in Suzhou with my desk in the AMC Office, but, never again… Now that the 2015-2016 academic year is over, it’s time to start travelling. And I couldn’t be more excited! I’ll soon be getting on a flight to Bangkok, followed by an overnight train down through Thailand. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be intense. It’s going to be awesome. This will be my 1st experience of Thailand, and I’ll Continue reading →